A Matriarchal Legacy

Category Archives: Generation 4: Emmy Tempest

As soon as Skylar could talk she would go on and on about clothes and looking pretty, something that really didn’t concern myself or James until Hailey aged up and began buying make up, whenever Hailey was out at school Skylar would sneak into her sister’s room and steal her make up.

This of course frustrated Hailey no end, and of course James because Hailey had expensive taste when it came to make up. For Skylar’s birthday James and I decided to buy her a little kiddies make up set, just to stop Hailey insisting on being given obscene amounts of money for her make up habit.

As Hailey began to approach young adulthood James and I realized we seriously needed to begin considering who would be the heiress, James thought Hailey was too impatient and mean spirited to be heiress whereas Skylar was her polar opposite, although she could be vain, we felt that Skylar was the best choice. So when the girls came home from school one evening I sat Skylar down at the table and began a speech, similar to my mother’s,

“So Skylar.. Your grandmother and I have been talking and we have decided to name you as Tempest heiress, we feel you would be the most responsible as Hailey’s attachment to material possessions is well, frankly, worrying.”

Skylar sat at the table and smiled demurely at me,

“Thank you mother,” and with that she left the table, leaving me staring at the varnished wood, surely it couldn’t be easy as this…

“MOTHER!!” Ah.. there’s the difficulty..

“I’m in the dining room sweetie,”

“Don’t you sweetie me!! You so picked your favorite to be heiress!”

“No, I picked the most responsible.”

“Responsible?? Skylar?? Mum, she’s just a kid!!”

“She’s not obsessed with material possessions, as you are.”

“You know what? I don’t even care anymore. This family is just ridiculous. After I graduate I’m out.” Hailey stomped out of the room and I decided to do leave her alone for a bit. Boy did I regret that! I’d just finished putting the boys to bed and gone to check on Hailey, and screamed almost the second I opened her door,

“Your… hair.. What have you done???”

“Isn’t it obvious? I had a bit of a style change.”

“Its a bit more of a style change.. It’s blue!!”

“Well I’ll be out of your hair before you know it. Then you can work on molding darling Skylar into the perfect heiress.” I ran my hands through my own hair, almost wanting to shake Hailey,

“Darling please, at least calm down and think about what you’re doing.”

“I’m done with thinking. Graduation is next week. There’s a house across town that I’ve bought already.”

“When did you buy it?”

“I figured I could call it a graduation present. It’s not as if you and dad don’t make enough money anyway.”

“Fine. But bear this in mind. The second you leave this house you will no longer be spare. If, god forbid, anything happens to Skylar then either I or her daughter will take over. Age no matter. I will not have you treat the family’s money as if it’s nothing. You better get job hunting!” I slammed Hailey’s door and ran into my room before I started crying,

“Emmy? What’s happened?”

“Hailey,” I hiccupped, “She’s bought a house. I forced her from the family.”

“Slow down, what happened?”

“We argued and then I told her she would never be spare,”

“Maybe its for the best Emmy..”

“James have you got all of her stuff?”

“Emmy, for the fifth time, yes!”

“Just making sure! Right, lets get her into her stroller then.” We loaded Sky’s stroller with all the bags and I slipped her inside, she was still quite small but she was just about ready to come home with us and meet her big sister.

Mum nearly flew out of the house when she saw us, leaning forwards to talk to Sky,

“Hello there darling! Wow you’re a lot bigger than how I remember you! Can I hold her Emmy?”

“Of course, just be careful!” James began carrying things inside while I lay on the sofa, trying to get a bit of shut eye when Hailey ran in the room, hair loose around her shoulders like mine used to be,

“Mama mama!! Where’s baby Sky??”

“Grandma’s got her Hailey. Why don’t you see if she’ll let you have a little cuddle with her?” Hailey ran back out of the room and I heard her talking to Skylar, sighing contentedly I closed my eyes.

Eventually, I woke up to James sitting by my feet, feeding Skylar,

“Whose daddy’s baby girl? You are! That’s right you are!”

“You could wake the dead with that racket!” James jumped as I spoke and nudged him with my toes,

“Get to bed, I’m gonna put Skylar to bed in a second.”

“No I want to go visit the museum for a bit.” James looked at me uncertainly and then nodded,

“I’ll take you there but let me put Skylar to bed and then I’ll let your mum know where we’re going.” I nodded and went out to the car, eventually James climbed into the car and we drove to our museum, I wasn’t even sure why I wanted to come here but it seemed like the right thing to do, especially with our new photos of Skylar to put up.

“So what do you think?”

“You did good, this place is just incredible!” James smiled at my praise and showed me around the place, showing me the “time machine” my grandmother had invented, something I’d never seen before. Soon I began to feel tired so James took me back home and insisted I ate something then took me to bed.

James’ Point of View

I was just emailing Mortimer, helping him to sort out all his finances and how he was going to pass along the oil industry when I got an email from an email address that I’d never seen before,

“James, you must help me, Christophe is fuming. Now he knows I failed my job.. He wants to teach me a lesson.. He wants to hurt my boys! You have every reason to hate me, but not my boys. They haven’t done anything to you! -Nicola” I opened the attachment and saw a photo of two baby boys.. What did she want me to do?

I replied after some brief contemplation,

“Nikki, what do you expect me to do? I can’t come and kill Christophe if that’s what you want! Maybe you should’ve been more careful as to who you woohoo with in future.-James”

“They’re adopted.. I can’t have them taken away! Just please, keep them safe?”

“You want me and Emmy to raise your sons?”

“Yes. It’s the only way they’ll be safe.”

“I need to talk to Emmy about this. It’s not a yes but I can try.”

“You are an angel!!”

I leaned back in my chair, looking at the two babies.. Emmy and I had discussed children on the way to the museum today and she said she didn’t want anymore.. But these wouldn’t be hers.. Could she raise children that weren’t her own? Was this all even legal?”

Emmy came downstairs shortly after Jasmyn had fed Skylar and sat down at the breakfast bar, eating some cereal, finally she felt me staring at her and spinned round on her stool,

“James.. What did you do?”

“Nothing.. But I need to ask you something.”

“Shoot,”

“Well.. Nikki emailed me last night..”

“What?? How did she find out your email address??! Are we in danger??”

“No.. But she is. So are her sons. She wants us to raise them and keep them safe.”

“No way. Absolutely not!”

“Emmy, you’re a mother, wouldn’t you do anything to protect Hailey and Skylar?”

“Emmy, please! Just consider it.”

“You do not ‘owe’ this woman anything. Neither do I. Why should I raise her children?”

“I told you, they’re in danger. She’s a mother desperate to protect her two sons.” Emmy chewed her lip and pulled at a loose thread on her shirt,

“Can I… See a photo of them?” I nodded and grabbed my laptop to show her the photo, Emmy leaned over my shoulder and clapped a hand over her mouth,

“Christophe.. Wants to hurt these boys?”

“As punishment to his girlfriend.”

“Fine. She can bring them here but she is not to visit them until Christophe isn’t a threat.”

The next day was Hailey’s birthday, we decided not to throw a party as it would have been too stressful for Emmy, but we received the shock of our lives as because when Hailey aged up, she became human once more, she still floated occasionally but she had somehow become human.

And then that night, we received the second shock of our lives, we heard a knock at our door but just as I made it downstairs I heard car tyres screeching and a small chirping noise, curious I looked out of my window and gasped,

On our porch, were the two babies that Nikki had asked Emmy and I to raise, quickly I scooped them up and brought them inside, pinned to each boy was a piece of paper with their names on it,

“Lets see.. Oliver Jaxon .. And David Isaac..” The boys snuffled into my dressing gown and both fell asleep, with some difficulty I climbed the stairs and woke Emmy,

“Look what santa brought us!” Emmy blearily sat up but her eyes widened when she saw the boys in my arms,

“She brought them here already? Did she stay?”

“No she left them on the porch, she must have been so desperate to keep them safe.

“Lets bring two of the spare cribs in here. I want them to sleep in here for the first few nights.”

Eventually Emmy and I settled into raising 3 babies and before we knew it Skylar was aging up, she ended up getting Jasmyn’s thick black locks and my eyes.

“Emmy, how on earth has Skylar got Jasmyn’s hair?”

“My grandmother, adoptive of course, was an elf, she found a way to bond me with the Tempest family so my children would inherit things like that. Any more questions?”

“Nope.”

Shortly after James and I were married Anna sat us down at the table,

“I don’t wish to stay in this world any longer, I want to move on. I don’t want any arguments, just a clean goodbye, I’ll still be watching over you, especially this little cherub,” Anna tickled Hailey, “But I want to be with my husband once more. I hope you can understand.” Anna’s edges began to fray before she vanished from our lives.

“Well… That was quick..” James picked up Hailey who had just toddled into the room and started picking at a loose thread on Hailey’s dress as I stood up and ran to the bathroom, I guess having a baby pressing on your bladder makes you need to pee a lot more.. As I came out of the bathroom a familiar twinge caught me in the back, labor pains.. Still 8 weeks too early though, probably just braxton hicks. I continued my day as normal, teaching Hailey how to talk,

But the twinges would keep coming back and as James and I lay in bed I began timing them. They’d been hours apart but now they were around 45 minutes apart, I nudged James,

“James,” I hissed “James wake up!!”

“Shurnowog.”

“Thats.. not even a word!! James get up!!”

“Urgh.. What?”

“I think.. I’m in labor.”

“Go back to sleep..”

“James for christs sake wake up! We need to get to the hospital!”

“Emmy.. Its 4am.. Surely it can wait..”

“You are hopeless!!” I phoned my mum and she was over within 10 minutes, James had managed to wake himself up and was now throwing baby clothes and nappies into a bag while mum sat in the nursery watching Hailey.

“Mrs Tempest is on her way. Yes, I know she’s not due for another 8 weeks but she seems pretty certain that she’s in labor,” James barked abruptly to the receptionist at the hospital, although I disagreed with him using his phone while driving his wife to hospital.

Eventually we made it into the ward and after an extensive examination we discovered I was indeed in labor, and joy of all joys, the baby was breech. So I had to have an ultrasound to make sure there was no risk to the baby or me and what else did they find? The umbilical cord was in a potentially dangerous position so they would have to give me an emergency Caesarean section. James paled considerably when we were moved into a theatre but he still held my hand and tried to calm me down.

Slowly the pain medication kicked in and I could feel tugging, and then heard a baby cry, then the crying stopped as the baby was whisked away

“Its a girl,” one of the midwifes smiled warmly at us but the worry in her eyes was hard to ignore. James had peeped over the partition and paled at the site of what I assumed was a bloody mess, and eventually a photo of a gorgeous burrito baby was handed to me,

“Skylar.” James and I spoke at the same time, Skylar and Tina and been our favorites but this girl, she was a Skylar. We were moved into a room and a nurse came and sat by us,

“Well she seems quite healthy, but she is of course rather underdeveloped, we’re going to need to keep her in Level 2 neonatal care, this simply means that she will need to stay in hospital until we see she is healthy enough to go home. Would you like to see her?” James and I nodded, and we were led to see our hour old daughter,

“She’s tiny..” I whispered to James and he nodded, Skylar looked far too small, but the steady rise and fall of her chest told us she wasn’t going anywhere for a while. The nurse stood with us, occasionally pressing buttons near Skylar’s incubator but trying to be quiet,

“Would you like to hold her?” She showed me how to cradle Skylar in the incubator, her body easily fit in both my hands. It felt almost like it was my fault. I’d delivered her too soon, I pulled away from Skylar slightly and James held my hand,

“This isn’t your fault. And look at her! She’s a Tempest! Born fighter!”

“Emmy.. I’ve got to go sort out the paperwork for the family museum.. You gonna be okay here?”

“I’ll be fine.” My grandfather had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and he had asked that his ashes be put in a public place where, once our legacy is famous everybody can look upon them. Grandmother Scarlett has already sent over her parents ashes and some paintings of them, now we just need to move them out of our basement.

James’ Point of View

Wow.. Emmy and I definitely picked the right place, when her grandmother Scarlett had pulled me to the side before our wedding she gave me a history lesson and told me what Rose was like.. This is definitely Rose’s style..

I met with the seller who was happy to let it go for §365,000 and he even offered to help me place all the portraits I’d brought in the van, we hauled Rose’s out first. Along with photos of her “wedding day” (all the photos had to be mocked up because nearly all of the men, including myself, broke the cameras when they were trying to develop the photos), then the photos of her three children, Summer, Liam and Scarlett. Then the photos of Scarlett and Mortimer, their kids and then Jasmyn, Tek when they first adopted Emmy, looking overjoyed, then the triplets. And now mine and Emmy’s photographs.. I’d been tempted to bring Skylar’s photo but we still didn’t know if she’d make it and I really didn’t feel like making out a plaque saying “Lost Baby Skylar Tempest” if she didn’t make it. By the time Mike (the seller) and I were finished it was around 9pm, and I knew Emmy was gonna be wondering where I was, by the time I’d got to the hospital I found Emmy sleeping with a photo of Skylar in her fingers.

“Urgh, I should not have had those tacos last night..” I clutched at my stomach through the layers of satin and tried for the umpteenth time that morning not to throw up.

“More like shouldn’t have had unprotected woohoo two months ago,” Mum narrowed her eyes at me from across the room,

“Jasmyn, leave her alone. At least they’re getting married.” Dad was attempting to fix his cuffs, eventually mum got sick of him trying to fix them and went to help him. Mum then tossed me my bouquet and gently stood Hailey up and held her hand, I leaned down to Hailey and kissed her cheek,

“Hailey are you ready sweetie? You need to walk first and put the flowers on the yellow carpet okay?”

“Yes mummy,” Hailey was standing up, looking adorable in her little flower girl dress, mum and Hailey walked up the aisle first, I could hear everybody saying “awww” as she and mum walked the aisle together. Now its my turn, dad linked his arms with mine and looked me in the eyes,

“I’ll always remember the day I first saw you, I was captivated from the second I laid eyes on you, and you have grown into a fine woman. Make great grandma Rose proud!”

We left the room and began to walk slowly up the aisle, I clung to my dad and then understood exactly how he and mum felt, I was their baby and now they are seeing their baby girl grow up. I stood opposite James and his face lit up the second he saw me, Sebastian acted as minister, and we were married within 20 minutes, by which time the paparazzi had turned up to see Mortimer Tempest’s granddaughter wed, mum quickly threw a blanket over Hailey and made a dash for the Jeep, we had agreed to hide Hailey from the public eye until she was much older, which meant we were being offered extortionate amounts of money from magazines to see photos of her.

When James and I arrived home after battling our way through the sea of people who had swarmed Hailey was in bed and mum was sitting in the rocking chair in the nursery,

“How bad was it?”

“Not too bad, they owe James some stitches though.” I gestured to a bloody hole where James’ earring was,

“Didn’t you go to the hospital?”

“Nothing I can’t fix mum, anyway thank you for today!”

“No problem sweetheart.”

“Now let me look at that ear,” James winced as I healed it, but didn’t say anything.

“Ah, now that stung like you wouldn’t believe!”

“Ew, I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Its not that bad Emmy, stop being so over dramatic,”

“No you turd! I’m pregnant!!”

“You’re what?”

“Pregnant.” I smiled at James,

“How long have you known?”

“Mum made a snide comment so I snuck out to get a pregnancy test while they were fixing dads cuffs. Only a few hours,”

“How far gone?”

“Only about 2 months, we need to keep it quiet.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want the paparazzi crawling over our lot to get glimpses of my bump, its bad enough with Hailey!”

“Well.. Yay! We’re having another baby!” James grinned and pulled me into a hug.

Author’s Note: Apologies for the short post folks but there really was nothing more I could think of without weakening the post!

“James.. We can’t let her stay like this forever.. She’d be bullied at school.”

“We’ll home school her. You can’t force a transformation that taxing on a baby.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that,”

“Look, we’ll wait until she’s a kid and then we will discuss it with her. Now your mum will not stop ringing me to tell me you’re late for the gym, now go!” I kissed James on the cheek and ran to meet mum at the gym, she had taken it upon herself to be my personal trainer to help me slim down for mine and James’ wedding next month. We had decided to get married at the spa, where our guests could enjoy complimentary spa treatments before returning home.

“So have the spa confirmed everything with you?”

“Yup! And you’re coming to Hailey’s birthday next week?”

“Of course! She is my granddaughter after all!”

“Can we stop for a second? I’m getting a stitch,” Mum switched off the music and slowly came to a stop,

“Lets hit the pool, that might relax you.”

“I’m getting a smoothie first!” As I stood at the bar I noticed a guy staring at me, he looked at his wife and her eyes bugged out before they came over,

“Greetings cousin Emily!”

“I’m sorry?”

“Oh our mistake, we should explain first! I am the granddaughter of Belle Goth, sister to your grandfather, Mortimer! And my husband is grandson to Casper Ritz, whose mother married your great uncle Liam. Small world eh?”

“No kidding! You have Cornelia’s hair,” I gestured towards the woman’s purple hair and she smiled warmly, just as mum come running over, still dripping from the pool,

“Well I never! Beatrice and Mark! How the heck are you guys?”

“We’re good, in fact Beatrice is carrying the world’s first Goth-Ritz!”

“Well what brings you to Sunlit Tides?”

“Well.. Mortimer recently contacted my mother, in a right state. You see, the oil companies are going bust, and with the amount of money that the Tempest family puts in, it could be a huge risk. Mortimer is getting old before his time anyway, always panicking to much. We have a proposition which could benefit all the families.”

“I’m all ears,” Mum now spoke as leader,

“Emily, you have a daughter correct?”

“Yes,”

“Do you intend on naming her as heiress?”

“Well I thi-“

“I’m afraid Hailey is illegitimate. That illegitimacy costs her the title of heiress.”

“May I ask which one of you is acting leader of the Tempest family?”

“I am. Until Emily marries next month, I am leader.”

“Well then this decision will affect Emily. Will you not be naming your child as heiress because of her illegitimacy?”

“Probably not. James and I want a large family anyway, we’re bound to have more than one girl. Anyway, your proposition?”

“I am carrying a son. We want to merge the families once again.”

“Surely that would mean my daughter marrying a cousin?”

“A very distant cousin. Barely related, and this would mean that the Goth and Ritz families would be able to help your family out of a difficult situation, face it, Tempest Oil Industries is going bankrupt, Jasmyn, I’m sure you have seen the figures.” Mother nodded quietly and then spoke,

“But Tempest and Goth marriages haven’t gone well in the past have they?”

“We will draw up a contract if need be. Just please, let us help your family!”

“My family doesn’t need your help. We shall manage just fine.”

Eventually they left and mum fiddled with her wedding ring,

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. But what they said is true. The oil companies are failing, you know why? Because that oil is nearly gone. By the time this family reaches our ninth generation we will not only be bankrupt but there will be no oil left. And the world will be paying sorely for it.”

“Should I take them up on their offer?”

“Do you want your daughter to marry her cousin?”

“Well as they said, they are barely related.”

“It will be up to you in a month’s time. Lets reschedule this for another time. You look exhausted, go home and make sure James knows everything.”

*****

“So they want our baby girl to marry her cousin. Nope. Not happening.”

“James my family is nearly bankrupt! It would be a way to sustain her future.”

“We’d be sacrificing her happiness!!”

“Maybe not, we could draw up a contract?”

“A marriage contact.. Slow down their you romantic devil!” James retorted sarcastically,

“What if we were to encourage them to fall in love? And not mention the contract?”

“And we could have grandchildren with tails!”

“I’m trying to protect my family.”

“I understand, but protection wont help the family. Our kids will be so pampered they wont have a realistic idea of life. You cant wrap them up in cotton wool, look at Hailey, in 18 years time, she will think we’re dinosaurs and want to move out to a city and marry a movie star, because we wont have given her a “real” upbringing. She needs to know how rough the world is and that she wont get her way all the time.”

“This isn’t something we can decide now. We need to seriously think about this, if we are going to betroth her to someone.”

“Do you truly believe betrothal is the only option?”

“Well look at us, we weren’t betrothed and look how that turned out! You ended up dead!” James smiled,

“Are you saying you’d prefer to be betrothed?”

“It would have taken some pressure off. Look, I’m sorry, I’m just stressed about the wedding and everything.”

“Go take a bath, I’ll keep an eye on Hailey.”

“Thank you.”

*****

“Yay!! Well done Hailey!” We all smiled and clapped as Hailey giggled and blew out the candles, her cool skin almost freezing my arms, I placed her on the floor for a split second and it seemed almost as if my baby girl had become a toddler in a split second.

We settled into raising Hailey as best we could, fairly early on we discovered the Hailey could crawl through objects and could even momentarily disappear. Hailey’s first word was “papa” which came out with a slight Italian accent which amused James and I no end. Potty training her was slowly becoming a nightmare though, James kept knocking over the seat so all sorts of muck would cover the floor of the bathroom.

“..And then the beautiful witch went away in a big blue box on all sorts of adventures. Night night Hailey!” I kissed the top of her head and pulled the railing up, leaving Hailey to play with the doll that Beatrice had sent her,

“Ni-night Mama!”

“Emmy this is the 5th batch you’ve attempted today! Hun, I don’t think its going to work.”

“James please, give me a little support?” Mum nodded from across the room while dad tried to fix the food replicator we had bought for this, only Sebastian had broken it by trying to replicate his hair or something.

“Okay, I guess we wont replicate this attempt. Eat up!” I placed the food in front of James and he slowly put the fork in his mouth, he was stuffed full of non responsive ambrosia,

“How do you feel?”

“A little light headed..” Suddenly a glow began to form around him and he was lifted into the air,

The glow became unbearable, glowing too many colors, but just as I closed my eyes I heard James,

“Emmy? Open your eyes,” I opened them and James was standing in front of me, eyes soft and his browny-purple hair shining in the sunlight,

“James!” I threw my arms around him, “It worked! It really worked!”

“I know baby!” James turned slightly, with me still wrapped around his neck and nodded, with some difficulty, to my parents

“I think she’s happy to see me,” Mum laughed at him and joined in the hug while dad awkwardly patted James’ back.

“So when are we marrying you off? I assume before the baby’s born?”

“Mum I can’t fit into my dress at the moment, I think we should wait until the baby’s been born.”

“You know that means the child is therefore illegitimate? If it is a girl she will not be heiress.”

“A rule I can change when I am leader.”

“Spoken like a Tempest! But no. That’s not happening.” Mum smiled at me as I finally relinquished my hold on James and stared at him, almost in awe. Not bothering to argue with my mother.

“Emmy, I’ve been here the whole time. Why are you acting like you haven’t seen me in a decade?”

“Because it feels like I haven’t seen you!” James pulled me into his arms and smiled down at me,

“I know what you mean,” Mum and dad were standing awkwardly beside us so they eventually made some excuse about Ana’s cheerleader practice and left. Needless to say, that night we re-acquainted ourselves with each other. I’d missed his warmth so much.

*****

“So, the nursery is all finished and the birthing plan has been made?”

“Yup! Now all we need is the baby!” James laughed,

“Easy there Emmy, one step at a time! By the way, Anna told me to tell you that she’s gonna be giving you another scan tonight after dinner, just to check everything’s okay. She’s worried about the head not being engaged.”

“Yeah, I know about that, she was asking if I knew anything about my family’s history of childbirth etc. Hey James? Only more 3 weeks to go,”

“Jesus. Time really does fly when you’re having fun huh?”

“I guess so.” James had been absolutely incredible throughout this pregnancy, running out to the store to get me the weirdest things at all hours. There had been one night in particular where I convinced him to go to the spa store at 4 am to get me some lavender bath salts because I felt sure I needed them to get to sleep. By the time he’d come home I was fast asleep and he was cold and grumpy.

“So you haven’t burned the kitchen down yet? Maybe I can trust you in there then, when you practice a bit more.” James had taken over kitchen duty after I nearly spilled soup down myself, I tried hard not to gag on the macaroni and cheese he’d made me, knowing it was my favorite food. It wasn’t that he was a bad cook, just sometimes he was a little “experimental” in the kitchen. And not in the good way.

“Okay so, if I’m seeing this right. And I assume I am, the baby’s head is actually engaged now, and with 3 weeks left until you’re due I think we need to seriously start looking over this birthing plan.” I handed the sheet over to Anna who chewed the end of her pen,

“Now, it says here you want a water birth? Do you have sufficient equipment for the birth or will we need to rent?”

“Surely I can just ‘magic’ some up?”

“Ah yes, I forgot you are a witch. Wow this child certainly has some interesting heritage. The father was a ghost, the mother is a witch and don’t get me started on the grandparents!” Anna smiled at me and packed away her equipment, as James entered the room,

“Birthing plan sorted?”

“Yessir! I’m gonna go practice conjuring up a birthing pool,”

“Hmm. Maybe you could do it after you check out what I conjured up in the kitchen?”

I walked into the kitchen to see a table laid with candles and dinner for two set up, I smiled at James and he pulled the chair out,

“My lady?”

“Why thank you,”

“James.. I don’t mean to spoil the moment or anything.. But I think my waters just broke..”

“Oh balls!! ANNA!!”

Author’s Note: Certain parts of this chapter were co-written by my close friend, Emeradam001 from the site, in other words, the “I missed his warmth bit” 😉

“Death fish.. life fruit. Can’t be too hard to find.”

“What can’t be too hard to find?”

“The ingredients for ambrosia,”

“I seriously don’t think you should be attempting it in your condition.”

“My condition? James, I’m pregnant not a leper.”

“I know but still, you could be putting our child at risk,”

“You’re forgetting the numerous wards I’ve put on myself and the baby. I top them up daily remember?”

“Even so! Look, I’ll get the ingredients, you can make it. But it wont change anything, I’ll still be a ghost.”

“I’ll do anything to get you back full time James. You know that,” He nodded,

“Do you want me to get the stuff now?”

“Please, I need life fruit and death fish.”

“Life fruit is growing around the front of our house, death fish might take me a while,”

“That’s fine, we’ve got time!” James flashed out and I sat at the breakfast bar when I got a craving for spaghetti and ice cream, as I put the spaghetti in the ice cream tub a small voice in the back of my head told me this was so wrong but an even louder voice was shouting, “eat the damn thing woman!”

“Great, so you’re going to be giving me some crazy cravings huh Smudge?” Smudge was what we called the baby, as the first time James looked at the scan photo he’d complained that it was smudged to which I’d replied,

“No James. That’s our baby.” Anna had just laughed the entire way through and said her husband had said the same thing to her, and when her son had been born her husband accused her of having an affair because both her and her husband were blonde and the baby had very dark hair.

*****

“And then I crashed in mummy’s garden and she fell head over heels for me the second she saw me!” I laughed at James putting on the silly voice,

“That’s not at all what happened James! Don’t lie to our unborn child!”

“Okay, I’ve gotta get going, I think I’ve found somewhere I can get a deathfish for you.”

“Be careful!”

“Emmy. I’m dead. There’s not much that can harm me.”

“I know.. but still.” He winked at me and flashed out again,

“Hmm.. I’d better start looking at baby names for you huh Smudge? You can’t go around your whole life being called Smudge now can you?” I felt a kick in response and laughed, but a ring around today’s date on my calender stopped my laughing. It was family dinner night, and I was going to have a lot of explaining to do to my parents.

*****

“Emmy.. Would you mind explaining the new threads?” I rubbed my wrist,

“Mum just come inside and I’ll explain it all. Is it just you and dad tonight?”

“Yes. Ana is out at cheerleader practice, Nathaniel is doing something for drama club and Merida is probably with Sebastian. Your dad’s just parking the car.”

“Okay well, come into the living room and I’ll explain to you, about the.. style change.” James appeared behind me and grabbed my arm,

“Are you sure this is a good idea? They might reject it.”

“They can reject it all they want. I love you and this baby, I wont give up either of you.”

“Okay lets go then.”

I walked into the living room where dad was sitting in a state of absolute shock while mum tried to comfort him,

“But.. Those are maternity clothes Jasmyn!! Whats she done??”

“..Tek its fine. She’s going to explain whats going on.”

“Uh. Mum, dad?” They both looked over at me,

“Yes dear?”

“What do you see beside me?”

“Well, a painting of a cat.. Am I supposed to see something else?” I pulled out my wand and waved it around James a few times, and then turned to my parents to see if my spell had worked,

“James? How on earth??”

“Mr and Mrs Tempest.” James bowed his head to them,

“Explain. Now Emily!!”

“Do I need to explain anything? James is a ghost and I’m pregnant. You do the math.”

“So.. That baby would be a.. ghost?”

“We don’t know, it’s a hybrid, it could be human with ghost abilities or a ghost with a more human appearance than my own.” James gestured to the hole in his neck as he spoke.

“We’re trying to find a way to resurrect James, and we think we’ve found a way. But its going to take time. I’m going to need to guys to support us and help James as in a few months I’m not going to be much help.” My parents nodded, dad still looking shocked,

“So this is my first ever grandchild?”

“Of course,”

“Well, I always knew you would have children Emmy but I never would have guessed you would be pregnant with a ghost. And you’re making me a grandmother this early?? I’m only 35!”

“Mother, you celebrated you’re 42nd birthday last month. Are you sure you’re not going senile?” James smiled at my joke and then walked over to my dad,

James’ Point of View

“Are you okay sir?”

“I told you before you died.. Call me Tek! And I’m sure you’ll understand when I say I’m in a little bit of shock.”

“So was I when she told me, I expected her to move on and have kids with some other guy.”

“Well, you’re lucky. Tempest woman are faithful, I don’t think the family would have survived Emily. She never would have gotten over you, you know that?”

“I felt sure she would, when I first started watching her, I saw her with Sebastian and I saw that potential there. But then my jealousy got in the way and I showed myself to her.”

“Don’t feel bad about it, you’ve probably saved this family. And hey when you’re cured you can get a real job!” He smirked at me,

“How did you know we lied about that?”

“Please, Nathaniel got his hacking skills from somewhere! And lets face it, finding a job record isn’t exactly hard.” I smiled at him, this man was truly a great guy. I expected him to hold a grudge against me for hurting his daughter. As if he could read my mind, he leaned in slightly,

“I don’t hate you for hurting Emmy. It was entirely out of your control. Just try not to get killed again okay?”

“I’ll try sir!”

Jasmyn and Emmy appeared to be done with their in depth talk of nurseries and sat on the sofa next to Tek and I,

“My mother made an interesting point, James.”

“Yes?”

“She’s worried that the media will find out the truth. I mean we were lucky enough to be able to cover up your death, but if the police go public about this whole thing we’re screwed!”

“Jasmyn, that would never happen. You forget Roxane works for the newspapers and that my father works in the police force now. They wont let the stories surface, I guess we just have to hope that Emmy’s baby isn’t a ghost.”

“If it were a ghost we could cure it!” Emmy rose from her seat slightly, ready to argue,

“Emmy, we don’t know for sure if the cure will work or not. Your dad has a point, even if we can bury the story about me, if we have a ghost baby it will be everywhere! Remember, you’re the granddaughter of Mortimer Goth, who just last week has become the 10th richest man in Lucky Palms!”

“Really? Well that racks up your inheritance by quite a lot Emmy! As well as mine!” Jasmyn said with a joking tone while Emmy rolled her eyes slightly,

“Okay, then we’ll need to sort out this cure soon. James how is the deathfish hunt going?”

“Hmm, well they can be caught in the graveyard here at night,”

“Yay!”

“But you need an angel fish to catch one. And angel fishes are quite probably the rarest and hardest to catch fish in the world.”